AI Shortlist Index — September 2026 Edition

Headline findings

This is the preview edition. One engine, ChatGPT, has answered 25 prompts in each of three categories, 75 runs in all; Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews are shown as missing until their runs exist. Every number here is one run deep, where the protocol calls for three across at least two days, so read the rankings as a first reading rather than a result.

The engine mostly reads vendors' own websites. Across the twenty most-cited domains in each category, 73% of citations went to vendor-owned sites and under 3% to forums. The thing that decides whether a vendor gets named is largely the vendor's own site, not a review platform.

The leaders are Second Nature in resident benefits at 86%, ButterflyMX in access control at 83%, and Property Meld in maintenance and vendor networks at 91%. In access control every one of the 19 vendors in the database was named at least once; in resident benefits, 19 of 20, so the engine spreads its answers rather than repeating one shortlist.

Engines

Resident Benefits Platforms

Twenty-five prompts, one run each, from ChatGPT with web search. Second Nature led at 86%, CredHub followed at 60% and Piñata at 54%, and 19 of the 20 vendors in the database were named at least once. Of the twenty most-cited domains, 71% of citations went to vendor sites, led by secondnature.com with 35. The category rewards vendors who explain their own program in depth on their own domain. One run per prompt; read it as a first reading.

Multifamily Access Control

Twenty-five prompts, one run each, from ChatGPT with web search. ButterflyMX led at 83%, with Salto at 76% and Brivo at 75%, and every one of the 19 vendors in the database was named at least once — the most evenly spread category in the edition. Vendor sites took 79% of the citations among the top twenty domains, and butterflymx.com alone drew 43. One run per prompt; read it as a first reading.

Maintenance & Vendor Network Software

Twenty-five prompts, one run each, from ChatGPT with web search. Property Meld was named in 91% of runs, Lula in 65% and Latchel in 64%, and all 12 vendors in the database were named at least once, the smallest field of the three categories. The most-cited domains were latchel.com, propertymeld.com and lula.life, and Property Meld's documentation subdomain drew 17 citations on its own. A support site earning that many citations suggests the engine reaches for product documentation when a prompt asks how something actually works. Treat the ranking as a first reading; the full protocol is three runs per prompt per engine across at least two days.